Queensland, Australia: Contamination and irreversible damage caused by Linc Energy at Hopeland more widespread than first thought. With Linc in liquidation and debts of $300 Million, who pays for the “irreversible” damages to the many farms, homes, soils, air and aquifers?

Flammable levels of hydrogen have been found at a number of locations near the site of a controversial gas project that has been blamed for contaminating huge swathes of prime Queensland farm land.

The ABC understands an ongoing Environment Department investigation has confirmed that the contamination is much more widespread than previously thought.

The Queensland Government has dispatched Environment Department officers to the Hopeland community, near Chinchilla in the state’s south, and is setting up a call centre to help explain the situation to landholders. [When will the Alberta government and the “No Duty of Care” AER set up a call centre or have a public meeting and inform the citizens of Rosebud that Encana illegally frac’d and contaminated their drinking water supply?]

Hopeland is the site of Linc Energy’s underground coal gasification (UCG) plant, which is alleged to have polluted soil and groundwater during its operation.

UCG involves burning coal deep underground, which creates a gas that is then collected at the surface through wells.

In 2015, the ABC revealed a confidential study commissioned by the Environment Department had found that the Linc facility had caused “irreversible” damage to strategic cropping land, with concentrations of hydrogen at explosive levels found in the soil.

Abnormal amounts of methane and high levels of cancer-causing benzene were also found.

Former Linc employees told investigators that gas often bubbled up from the ground and that they had fallen ill while working at the site.

The company, which is now in liquidation with estimated debts of $300 million, has been committed to stand trial on five counts of wilfully causing environmental harm. [No action by Alberta regulators or Attorney General to make Encana stand trial for intentionally frac’ing a community’s drinking water supply]

Five former executives — including Linc founder Peter Bond — have also been charged with environmental offences, which can carry a penalty of up to five years’ jail.

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[Compare to how corporate crimes are handled in Canada:

Will Encana’s ex-CEO Gwyn Morgan and ex-VP Gerard Protti ever be charged and punished for what was done to Rosebud’s fresh water aquifers under their management? So far, Encana’s law violations have only been rewarded:

the Alberta government appointed Protti Chair to Chair the AER;

Steve Harper appointed Morgan to Chair Canada’s “Accountability Act;” and

Due to fears about possible hydrogen explosions, the Government has been enforcing a 314-square kilometre “excavation caution zone” around the Linc plant, with landholders banned from digging any hole deeper than two metres.

The ABC understands further investigation by the Environment Department has now found flammable levels of hydrogen at locations outside the current caution zone.

[If the AER and Alberta Environment were regulators instead of fraudsters and deregulators, and were investigating Encana’s crimes and monitoring impacts of the company’s frac’ing, how many hundreds of Alberta families would be found living in explosive risk from Encana’s migrating methane, ethane, H2S, and other gases?]

The hydrogen has been detected underground and the department says it dissipates quickly in the open air.

Government sources have stressed the gas is not of an explosive concentration but landholders will be encouraged to exercise caution.

Environment Department testing only found hydrogen and not more dangerous chemicals at the former Linc site.

The department’s investigation into Linc Energy was the largest of its type in Queensland’s history. [Emphasis added]